Electronic spreadsheets organize information into a matrix of columns and rows. Each column within a row is referred to as a cell. Each cell of an electronic spreadsheet stores a data element or a formula that uses data elements from other cells to calculate a desired result. As an example, a formula may be used to calculate the sum of data elements stored in the cells comprising a column or a row of an electronic spreadsheet. To ease computation, electronic spreadsheets include built-in functions that perform most standard mathematical operations.
For on-screen viewing and printed output, electronic spreadsheets may also include functionality to apply a variety of formatting options to a cell. Exemplary formatting options include: font face, color, size and style; border style and color; background color; conditional formatting rules; etc. Formatting may usually be accomplished per cell or per a group of cells. Thus, a typical electronic spreadsheet may include a variety of different formats at any given time.
Prior electronic spreadsheets require a user to manually apply formulas and/or formatting to selected cells through commonly known user interface techniques, such as selecting options from a pull-down menu. Skilled users of such prior systems may also take advantage of built-in shortcuts, such as copy/paste functions, to extend formulas and/or formatting to include newly selected cells. In particular, shorts-cuts have proven effective for extending formulas and/or formatting to include cells that are appended to or edited within a list of cells having a consistent formula or format or aggregating formulas. However, short-cuts do not eliminate the need for manual user interaction in order to extend formulas and/or formatting. Thus, a significant drawback found in prior electronic spreadsheets is the inability to automatically extend, without instruction from the user, a formula or format to include a cell that is appended to or edited within a list of cells.
Accordingly, there is a need for an electronic spreadsheet that is able to recognize a list of cells having a consistent formula and/or formatting and/or aggregating formulas applied thereto and to automatically extend such consistent formula and/or formatting and/or aggregating formulas to include a cell that is appended to or edited within the list.